• Titanfall (EA, PC/Xbox 360/Xbox One)

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Tearing out of the gates like a rocket-powered greyhound, Titanfall has one objective only: to give the player an extremely good time. Taking its cue from the Seinfeld maxim of “no hugging, no learning”, this much needed flagship title for the Xbox One dispatches with the usual perfunctory introductory plot of goodies versus baddies before never really referring to it again, choosing instead to focus on the fine art of making things go “boom!”, “dugga dugga dugga!” and “aaaargh!”. Titanfall is deeply satisfying and immaculately polished first person shooter that offers up hours of entertainment to newbies and seasoned players alike. The polar opposite of po-faced…

  • Watch: The Late David Turpin – Hotel

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Dublin-based singer-songwriter The Late David Turpin has unveiled the rather cryptic and impenetrable video for his new single, ‘Hotel’. Made in collaboration with photographer/editor Killian Broderick and starring siblings Julie Shanley and Jack Shanley (as well as Turpin and his own brother),  the video was shot on location in the Wicklow mountains and in the atmospheric Bray Head Hotel, which wasrecently used as a location for Neil Jordan’s Byzantium. Partially inspired by esoteric fantasies of the mid-1970s including John Boorman’s Zardoz (1974) and Louis Malle’s Black Moon (1975), the video features multiple fragmented strands suggesting human sacrifice and transformation.  Pivoting around a movement piece choreographed by Jack Shanley, the video is…

  • Fading Gigolo

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    John Turturro has carved out an incredible career as a character actor in the films of the Coen brothers and Spike Lee in particular. Fading Gigolo sees him breaking new ground as writer, director and star and he’s brought the undisputed master of this art along for the ride in Woody Allen. A comedy about sex and religion sounds like vintage Woody, but while Fading Gigolo may be about the oldest profession in the world, it’s far from vintage. Fading Gigolo sees Woody Allen break new ground, playing pimp to Turturro’s reluctant prostitute and as a premise it’s a pretty…

  • We Cut Corners – Think Nothing

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    We Cut Corners debut, Today I Realised I Can Go Home Backwards, was one of the great under-heralded Irish debuts. At just thirty two minutes, it flits almost flippantly between heart-on-sleeve confessional pop melodies full of wonderfully oblique imagery in ‘Go Easy’ and ‘A Pirate’s Life’, and the White Stripes-inspired tuneful thrashings of ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Say Yes To Everything’. The album’s charm fell in its balance: its thoughtful, oblique lyrics, soaring vocals and ability to be scorchingly angry and pointedly self deprecating in the same three minute period. It sounds like it would take four people to play, yet the duo reproduce it perfectly live.…

  • Watch: Rhinos – Rhino

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Formed in Belfast in September last year, garage rock duo Paul Currie and Laura Totten AKA Rhinos have really made a name for themselves following a handful of live shows these last couple of months. Counting the likes of Minor Threat, The Melvins and Andy Kaufman as influences, the pair have both played in a variety of local bands down the years, including T.A.R.T., Sinch, Hammer Bat, Buzzkill and others. Stripped back and launching straight for the jugular, Rhinos’ jagged garage-rock blitzkrieg is impressively captured on their debut single, ‘Rhino’. A call-and-response call to arms, the track was recorded by Clark Philips at the Joe…

  • Electric Picnic 2014

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Hands down the country’s premier boutique music, culture and arts festival, Electric Picnic, will return this summer, headlined by trip-hop legends Portishead, rejuvenated U.S. hip-hop duo Outkast and Beck. Taking place at Stradbally Estate, Co. Laois from Friday, August 29 to Sunday, August 31, the likes of Chic, Mogwai, Slowdive, St. Vincent and Blondie have also been confirmed to play the annual festival, which celebrates its eleventh anniversary this year. Beginning as a one-day event in 2004, Electric Picnic expanded to a weekend-long festival within a year. Tickets for the festival are now available – starting from 90.00 for a Sunday day ticket – are available via the…

  • Coldplay – Ghost Stories

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Setting aside the fact that their sixth studio album coincides particularly poignantly with a very public ‘conscious uncoupling’, from the opening notes you are left in little doubt that Ghost Stories is Coldplay‘s ‘break up’ album. This is an album that is, if you will pardon the pun, haunted by failed relationships. When you are eating ice cream by the pint and stalking the Facebook profile page of the one who broke your heart, this album will certainly provide the appropriate soundtrack. A deeply personal, introspective and at times, self-indulgent record, Ghost Stories comes prepared to offer you music to…